Review-When I talk about people who influenced me. My father is always fast to come to mind. Television and film personalities, Johnny Carson would be number one. Johnny had this dry delivery to his jokes, that his mannerisms sold the joke. This type of physical comedy that the joke was merely the foreplay into the real humor. When Johnny retired, is the day the talk show medium died for me. I felt Letterman had this nasal whiny approach to comedy that did not click with me. Conan depends on redundancy as his means.Johnny Carson with his Carnac skits, set the bar for just how absurd you can take late night television. He had the envelopes hermetically sealed, and he would just say the most absurd answers to the questions that were meant to be controversial. Where, comedy and late night started getting more confrontational and politically charged. Johnny would just rely on his bread and butter, and that is trying to play things out evenly and find humor in his approach more than his delivery. That being said, this box set entitled “ The Vault Series”., if you are a Carson fan, is such a must have. You get some of the most requested episodes. Who can forget when Dean Martin would come on the show and they would go back and forth.

A young Robin Williams, really showcasing why he is going to be a great comic. We also get the great Eddie Murphy. The stand up jokes he does for the audience are one thing, when him and Johnny go back and forth with the jokes, it is just comic genius. Steve Martin is another one, who really shines on this set. He has this dry wit delivery that really is so ahead of its time. On this collection, you get 12 full shows. Here is hoping, we get more Carson. Especially, the ones with Siskel and Ebert later on. Those shows, were always my favorite.